


Neverwhere

by IncendiaGlacies



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Fix-It of Sorts, Friendship, Gen, Light Angst, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-01
Updated: 2019-10-01
Packaged: 2020-11-09 10:10:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,463
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20851721
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IncendiaGlacies/pseuds/IncendiaGlacies
Summary: They were stuck in the Neverwhere with no one to hear them or help them, no one even knew they existed. Trapped between the worlds where time remained fixed. As far as the Legends were concerned Leonard Snart and Rip Hunter were dead to the world.





	Neverwhere

The last thing Rip remembered was the golden light surrounding him, Mallus yelling in fury and agony before him. His thoughts slipped away from him, turning to his wife and son, with whom he would soon be reunited. It was a fitting end, he was leaving this world as a Legend. He hoped Miranda and Jonas would be proud of him. The gold seared his eyes and he had to close them to stop the pain. The heat of the time drive enveloped him, warm like a blanket, and he felt himself being lifted, light as a feather…

When he woke up it was to a bright room. No, not room. There weren’t any ceilings, no walls, it was just white. Everything was just a bright white. Was this heaven, or hell?

“Good, you’re awake. I was wondering if you were actually dead.”

Rip frowned at the drawling voice and squinted against the light. A figure formed in front of him. Slowly, Rip stood up, staring at the other man in shock.

“Mr. Snart?”

“The one and only.” Leonard smirked at him. “And don’t remind me of that other version of myself from that Nazi world. Do gooder.”

Rip snorted. “Flat words from the man that died to save the world.”

Leonard smiled at him. “Except we’re not dead. Not really.”

“What?” All that effort and he still wasn’t dead? “Then how…where…” Rip looked around the place. Nothing, there was absolutely nothing. “Void between the universes?”

Leonard nodded. “Takes some getting used to. From what I can tell, time works weirdly too.”

“Like the Vanishing Point.” Rip had heard of other places similar to it. Places where the laws of physics and time and space didn’t apply. “How long have you been here?”

Leonard shrugged. “Long enough.”

“You’ve been here since…”

“I exploded?” Leonard said wryly.

“We thought you died.”

“Minor setback.”

“Well haven’t you tried to leave?” Rip demanded.

Leonard snorted. “Plenty of times. What, you think I want to be in here? Gets boring. Nothing good to steal or even look at.”

Rip turned in circles, sure that if he looked hard enough, tried hard enough, he would find something that Mr. Snart had clearly over looked.

“You’re going to make yourself dizzy doing that,” Leonard singsonged. Rip glared at him, ignoring his concerns.

“We need to find a way to send a message to the Legends,” Rip said. If they even helped. They hadn’t really parted on the best of terms still, and the Time Bureau was under the direction of Ava now, who wasn’t too pleased with him either.

“Tried that too. Tried to contact Mick, he kept thinking I was a ghost, or a hallucination. Even tried with Gideon, sometimes that works.”

Rip stopped and stared at him. “What? Gideon? You can contact Gideon?”

Leonard smirked at his clear excitement and Rip found himself growing hot under the other man’s knowing look. “Come on, I’ll show you what this place can do.” Leonard started walking away, disappearing into the white clouds. Rip hesitated a moment before following after. He didn’t want to be left alone in the middle of nowhere. As they walked, the clouds started thinning around them. The surface beneath his feet became more and more solid, until they walked right onto the Waverider.

Rip stared, mouth agape, as Sara stood at the console, barking out orders. Mick stole whiskey from Rip’s secret stash. Zari snarked back at Ray over a game of cards on the floor. Rip stepped forward, about to get Sara’s attention, when his hand slipped right through her body. He felt as though he had been doused in cold water.

“They can’t see you, can’t hear you,” said Leonard, frustration tinging his voice. “Can’t do anything but watch.”

Rip stared at the scene in front of him. “Is it real?”

“Ask her.”

“Ask who-” Rip turned to look at Leonard when he caught sight of her. Gideon. Human and standing at the steps, looking past him at Sara and the other Legends. She looked sad.

“That is, if you can get her attention. Sometimes, we’re invisible to even her.” Leonard circled the AI, towering over her. Gideon watched past him, unperturbed.

“Pocket universes,” Rip murmured. He remembered Gideon talking about it once, when she explained what it was like to be an AI. “The Time Masters created pocket universes with every ship, a way to interface with the AI, should something go wrong with the ship. Sometimes, it was easier to talk to a human than a computer.”

“Not so easy when she doesn’t even know we exist,” quipped Leonard.

Rip ignored him and stepped forward. “We must be in separate pockets. Gideon can see the Legends. We can see the Legends and Gideon. There’s overlap.”

Leonard hummed thoughtfully and stepped away as Rip got closer to Gideon. She didn’t notice him, not one bit. Rip’s heart hurt as he wondered if he could even have a heart anymore, wherever he was.

“Gideon, please…” He reached out, wanting to cup her cheek, stroke her hair…his hand went straight through as if she were a hologram.

“Don’t look so glum. Sometimes she notices us.”

“It seems luck is against me, yet again.”

Leonard seemed unconcerned by his statement, eyes trained on Mick as his fingers drummed against the table. Rip dropped his hand and stepped away from Gideon sadly. He opened his mouth to say something when he heard a baby’s cry.

Rip furrowed his brow. “Did they kidnap a baby?!” Honestly, he wouldn’t put it past the Legends at this point.

“Actually, that’s our baby.”

“Excuse me?” Rip raised an eyebrow at him.

“Come on,” Leonard got up and waved him over, “time to meet the other roommate.”

Rip followed Leonard as he stepped into the hallway, the walls disappearing from them as they walked further and further away from the bridge, until they were back in the white clouds. Snart led him to a crib where a small baby cried incessantly.

Rip’s parental instincts took over and he picked her up, gently rocking her on his hip until she slowly quieted. “Who is she?” Rip asked quietly. Why was a small child in this place? She should have been with her family, her parents, not this…hell.

“I think her name is Sara.”

Rip frowned. “But not our..”

Leonard shook his head. “Barry was messing around with time. I watched the aftermath. One of the things he mentioned that had changed was a baby changing, from a boy to a girl. Sara Diggle.”

“She was erased from time,” Rip whispered in horror.

Leonard nodded sadly. “She’s not always around. Sometimes, she takes us to her parents. Only makes her cry more when they don’t pick her up.”

Rip kissed the top of her head, holding her tight. “What happens when you’re not around, where does she go?”

“I don’t know. She doesn’t look any bigger than when she first arrived.”

“Time is frozen,” Rip reminded him. “She must be part of another pocket universe, overlapping with ours from time to time. Where did the crib come from?”

“Things show up if and when we need them.”

“Mental materialization. We can literally create whatever we want in this universe.”

“It doesn’t stay,” Leonard warned.

“Nothing ever does.” Rip closed his eyes and thought of a bottle of milk. It appeared in his hand and he tilted it into Sara’s mouth to feed her. “But it will have to do for now, until we figure out a way to get out.”

“Already told you-”

“That was when you were on your own. No, there are two of us.”

* * *

“We could always try the harmonic frequency intensizer,” Rip offered, feeding baby Sara in his arms.

They had imagined up a house for the three of them, with a baby room for Sara and rooms for the other two as well. Sara wasn’t always around, but whenever she cried, Rip usually found her in her crib. The two men had grown used to caring for her. Leonard had already bonded with the child, knowing how to make her smile and laugh with funny faces and magic tricks. Rip was in charge of feeding and changing and putting her to sleep when they had to work.

Currently, they were sitting in what would be the living room, trying to work on plans. Leonard had drawn out their thoughts on paper and Rip had worked on the math. In some ways it felt like barely any time had passed, and in others it felt as though it had been an eternity. They still hadn’t made as much progress as Rip would have liked. Not in finding a way to return to their world or to make contact with the Legends or Gideon.

They were stuck. They were stuck in the Neverwhere with no one to hear them or help them, no one even knew they existed. Trapped between the worlds where time remained fixed. As far as the Legends were concerned Leonard Snart and Rip Hunter were dead to the world.

“Won’t work. Just because you increase the intensity of the signal, doesn’t mean they’re going to hear us in another dimension.”

Rip sighed, knowing the other man was right. Even if Mr. Snart didn’t have the traditional background in physics and science like Doctor Palmer and Professor Stein, he was useful in his way of thinking and understanding logic.

“You’re right.”

“Obviously.”

Rip ignored his smirk and rolled his eyes, having gotten used to the other man. Sara fussed in his arms and he wrapped the blanket around her, gently trying to rock her to sleep. Leonard passed the stuffed lion she enjoyed and let her hug it. Rip kissed her head.

“You know we can’t look after a baby forever,” Snart said.

“I know.” The very thought was terrifying, being stuck in one moment in time, one place, never changing, never growing…never seeing his family again. “All the more reason to figure out how to solve this.”

Suddenly, the lights crackled around them, shards of lightning zipping around them. Rip held Sara tight as Leonard frowned at the sight of their house crumbling around them. Sara wailed loudly in Rip’s arms even as he tried to shush her.

“Incoming,” Leonard muttered.

“What?”

Before Rip could ask for more details, their house disappeared into the dust around them, leaving them in the white clouds of nothingness. There was a young woman crumpled on the ground. Leonard stepped forward and poked her gently.

“Don’t hurt her!” Rip hissed at him. “Is that what it was like when I…”

“Not as flashy, but you get the point.”

“Can you carry her?” Rip raised Sara a little to show his arms were a little full. “We can put her in a bed until she wakes up.”

“Sleeping Beauty here just ruined our house and you wanna help her?”

“Yes.” Rip knew Leonard did too. It was in the steely glint of his eyes, the crease just above his nose. He hated this place just as much as Rip did and wanted out.

Snart rolled his eyes but picked up the woman bridal style and laid her down in the princess bed that appeared in front of them, complete with a veiled curtain.

“Charming,” Rip commented.

“Don’t get your hopes up. I’m not kissing her awake.”

“I don’t think you’ll have to,” Rip said quietly. The woman groaned and started to stir. Leonard and Rip both went to her sides.

Her eyes fluttered open and she looked up at them blearily. “Where am I? Where – where are my parents?”

Rip and Leonard shared a look. “You’re sort of in between worlds right now,” Rip said gently.

She gave them a heartbroken look. “It happened, didn’t it? My existence was erased from time.”

She didn’t seem that surprised.

“What’s your name?” Snart asked.

“Nora. And you – you’re Leonard Snart, aren’t you?” she said excitedly, recognition spreading across her face. “You have an entire wall dedicated to you in the Rogues Gallery. Foe turned friend to the Flash! But didn’t you die?”

“Sort of. And the Flash and I are hardly friends. More like, acquaintances, owing each other favours.” Leonard tilted his head as he examined Nora. She looked familiar, her bubbly personality, how she tucked her hair behind her ear, the crinkle in her nose.

“That’s not what dad would say.”

“Dad?” asked Rip.

“Barry Allen is your father,” Snart said flatly.

Nora nodded eagerly. “Nora West-Allen.”

“You have his powers?”

“I’m a speedster.”

“And you messed with time.”

Nora looked down sheepishly and nodded. “My dad disappeared when I was a little girl. I just wanted to meet him, help him. Only I got involved with the wrong people. Thawne tricked me.”

“Like father like daughter,” said Snart.

Rip took a seat next to Nora. “Eobard Thawne often has his ways of manipulating people, it’s not all your fault. I’m Rip Hunter, by the way. And this sweetheart is Sara.”

“Nice to meet you,” said Nora.

“So you were erased from time too,” Leonard said. “How’d it happen to you? I blew myself up, Rip, here, faced off a time demon, Sara was erased when your dad made Flashpoint.”

“Changed the future, my present too much. I had to fix my mistakes.”

“What about your brother?” asked Rip.

Nora frowned. “I don’t have a brother. It’s only me, it’s only ever been me.”

“That’s not possible,” Rip shook his head, “Barry Allen had twins. Dawn and Don Allen and – oh, except your name isn’t even Dawn, is it. It’s Nora.”

“Did your mother name you?” Leonard asked. “I bet your mother named you. Only Barry could come up with names that sound exactly alike for two different kids.”

Nora ignored his comment. “What does that mean? I changed time so much I now have a twin? Or that…the other me has a twin?”

“Hard to say.” Rip placed a comforting hand on her shoulder, “Your present is my past, it’s fixed. It is also Mr. Snart’s future, meaning it’s always changing. Time is always in flux. It’s-”

“Complicated,” Leonard said curtly. “What Rip is trying to say is that he has no idea what’s going on with time and it’s complicated.”

Rip shrugged. “Basically.”

“Come on, we’ll show you around Neverwhere,” Leonard said, “but this time, don’t ruin our house.”

* * *

Rip looked at Gideon longingly, as always, she looked right past him. She never talked as much as she did with him, mostly just looked at the Legends with boredom. There was a time when Constantine had messed with the timeline, causing multiple timelines to emerge that Leonard and Rip had thought they could make contact with Gideon, but it did no good. Constantine had fixed the timeline and Gideon had returned to her AI world, lost to him forever again.

It did however give Rip an idea.

Time was in flux whenever a change was made to the timeline, the walls between their world and the real world weakened. If they could pinpoint such a time then perhaps they would have a better chance of returning home.

Rip was watching the Legends on the ship, having returned from their latest mission, Gideon quiet as ever, when he felt the shift in the air. In a blink of an eye, Zari was no longer there, now replaced by another man. A man that had never been a part of the Legends before. Rip frowned at the sight, trying to figure out what had happened to cause such a great change, time had clearly changed again.

Rip got up and stepped back into the Neverwhere as Snart had called it and saw Nora running towards him. He caught her in his arms and was about to ask what was wrong when she started crying.

“The Crisis! The Crisis date changed! He’s going to disappear this year, not in five!”

“What? Nora, I don’t understand-”

“My dad! My dad goes missing this year.”

“Oh, the Crisis.” Rip remembered it from his Academy days. Everyone knew that was a fixed point. Something drastic must have happened for time to have changed this much. “One of the Legends has been replaced as well.”

The clouds parted and Leonard walked in, a faraway look in his eyes as he joined them.

“What happened?” asked Rip.

“Lisa saw me.”

“Lisa?” asked Nora.

“His sister,” Rip answered. The other man hardly seemed in any shape to answer. An armchair appeared and collapsed into it.

“Isn’t that a good thing?” Nora looked between the two of them unsurely.

“It’s never happened before,” Leonard said flatly. “She didn’t even believe I was real. They never do.”

“At least you can get through,” Rip said miserably. No matter how hard he and Nora tried, they could never be heard by their loved ones. Leonard glared at him and Rip raised his hands in surrender. “It is a good thing though.”

“How do you figure that?”

“Whatever happened caused a major ripple effect, bigger than anything we’ve seen yet. The walls between our worlds are thin now. Perhaps thin enough to return to our lives.”

“If we even had lives left,” Nora said sadly.

Rip squeezed her hand. “It’s worth a try.”

“Well then there’s just one question left,” Snart said slowly, “who goes first?”

* * *

Sara wailed loudly in Rip’s arms, nothing he did could console the child.

“Why don’t they come with an off button?” Leonard rubbed his temple in aggravation.

“She just doesn’t know how to communicate yet. It’s not her fault,” said Rip, rocking the baby gently. It did nothing.

“Your plan better work.”

“Didn’t you have a saying? Expect the plan to go off the rails?”

“The great Rip Hunter admitting he might be wrong?” Leonard smirked at him.

Rip looked down quietly. “I have no problem admitting I’m wrong, I just don’t like it when others are hurt because of it. So, for both our sakes, let’s hope I’m right.”

“All of our sakes,” Nora piped up.

Rip smiled at her. “Yes, all of our sakes.”

“Any time you want to imagine your mommy and daddy, go for it, little rascal,” Leonard spoke to the child. Despite his words, his tone was nothing but affectionate. Rip wondered if the other man even noticed how soft he was for the child.

Around them the scenery changed, the white clouds melted away into a nursery of warm reds and the soft glow of the night light. Leonard nodded at Rip and he placed Sara down into her crib. Leonard handed her the stuffed tiger she loved so much. Rip kissed her head, followed by Leonard, Nora let the baby hold onto her finger.

“How do we know this will work?” she asked worriedly.

“We just have to hope for the best.,” Rip said quietly. He pinched Sara’s arm lightly, but just enough for her wails to get even louder, an ear-splitting level of loud.

“Better work,” Leonard grumbled.

“Bye Sara, we’re going to miss you,” Nora cooed.

The door of the nursery opened and a pregnant woman walked in.

“That’s Lyla – and Dig!” Nora said as a man entered the room as well. Sara’s grip on her finger melted away, her hand falling through like smoke. Lyla walked past the trio and went straight for the crib.

“What’s wrong, my angel?”

The cries quieted as Lyla picked her baby up, finally, she was appeased by the love of her mother.

“It worked,” Leonard said, still with a touch of surprise.

“She’s home now,” Rip said quietly, the room disappearing in a smoke around them.

“I miss her already,” Nora said sadly.

“She was pregnant,” Rip said suddenly, as the white clouds surrounded them once more.

“What?”

“Lyla, Sara’s mother, she was pregnant.”

“And?” asked Snart.

“It doesn’t make sense.” Rip began to pace. “You said that Sara’s existence was erased by Mr. Allen’s actions of Flashpoint.”

“Yeah, by a little boy. And now she’s back where she belongs.”

“Except Lyla Diggle is still going to have a baby boy.” Rip was sure of it. His eyes widened at the implications of what they had just done. “I was wrong.”

“Excuse me?”

Nora put a hand to Leonard’s chest to stop him from doing something stupid, like punching the other man. “What do you mean?” Nora demanded, lightning crackling in the air around her.

“I thought that the way time changed, it meant that we could return to our own times. But we can’t.”

“But we just put Sara back-”

“No, we didn’t.” Rip closed his eyes and tried to imagine the place they had never been, the place they had only seen when Sara’s cries became too loud, too lonesome, her home, her family.

“We’re back in the nursery,” Nora said, looking around. “Except it’s not.” She tilted her head at the photo of Dig and a small boy.

“It is the nursery, the one in our universe,” Rip said quietly. “When time changes, it splinters, sets things in motion, a different timeline.”

“A different universe,” Nora realized.

Rip nodded. “And no matter how hard you try, you can’t make it all whole again.”

“So, where we just put Sara…” Leonard started.

“Was another universe than the one where she was born.”

“Well, we have to get her back!”

“I don’t know how. I’m not sure we can get there without her leading the way.” Rip’s voice cracked. “It was the universe she wanted, it must have been.”

“We don’t even know if she’ll be okay. She’s just a baby!”

“With a mother and father who love her, know she exists. And she’ll have a little brother too.”

“So, we can’t go home,” Nora said sadly.

“No. I don’t think we can.”

The room slipped away from them and they ended back in the same endless fog and clouds. Rip sat down, defeated.

“Might not be able to go home, but we can go somewhere else,” Leonard said slowly, “maybe somewhere better.”

* * *

“Do you think I’ll remember who I am?” asked Nora.

“No clue.” Leonard crossed his arms, annoyed with the constant stream of questions from the young woman. If he had known it would be this bad, he would have gone first.

“I just don’t want to forget you guys. Or who I was.”

Rip placed a hand on her shoulder. “No matter what happens, there will always be a small part of you that remains. Now, are you sure this is the universe you want to go to?”

Nora nodded again. “It’s the same one we sent Sara to. It’ll be good to see her again, grow up with her. And I have a brother this time!”

Rip smiled at her and accepted her decision. He turned to Leonard who nodded and gave Nora a quick hug.

“Give your old man hell from me,” Leonard said with a smile.

Nora laughed and gave him a mock salute. “Thank you, to you both. I hope you’re happy wherever you end up.”

She closed her eyes and the world changed around them to StarLabs. It was older, with people shuffling around, lightning streaked by them a few times. Nora gave them one last look when the lightning struck her. Her brother grabbed her hand and the two zipped off before she could even say goodbye. The world faded away from them once more.

“She’ll be happy,” Leonard said confidently, “her dad’s alive in that one.”

Rip nodded, hoping for the same. “You’re next. Know where you’re going?”

“Found a nice little universe. Sister’s a teacher, mom’s alive, and dad isn’t.”

“Are you planning on being a good man in that universe?”

Leonard shrugged. “I can’t help it if a trinket or two catches my eye.”

“For what it’s worth, you ‘died’ a hero, a good man. I know you’re capable of it.”

“Yeah, well, if another Rip Hunter comes knocking on my door, I’m going to tell him exactly where he can go.”

“I’m sure he’ll deserve it,” Rip said self-deprecatingly.

“Well, you’re not as bad as I thought either.” Leonard held out his hand. “Glad you’re alive.”

“You too.” Rip shook his hand.

“What about you, where are you going?”

Rip swallowed the lump in his throat. “I found a universe where they’re alive. I figured I’d try my luck.”

Leonard nodded. “Good luck. Better do it quick. Like you said, walls are thickening.”

“I will. I just…”

“Need to say your goodbyes,” Leonard said understandingly. He had watched his old partner and little sister earlier that day. “Don’t stay too long, who knows when the next chance you’ll have will be.”

“I won’t. Promise. Do you want me to go with you?”

“No.” Leonard shook his head. “This is something I have to do alone.”

“Of course.” He would never admit it, but Rip thought he was actually a little sad at losing Mr. Snart’s companionship. The other man had kept him sane in their endeavors through hell together. “This is it then.”

“This is it. Good luck, Captain.”

“Good life, thief.”

Leonard gave him a smile and turned away, walking into the clouds and leaving Rip alone.

He sighed and closed his eyes, the Waverider materializing around him. Gideon was sitting in his parlour, staring at the decanter of whiskey with a sad smile on her face. He knelt in front of her, reaching out again, trying to touch her cheek. He couldn’t.

“I wish you could hear me, see me,” he murmured. “You’re my best friend, Gideon. I’m sorry I left you, that I have to leave you again, but I have to believe you’ll be all right without me. Take care of the Legends for me.”

The doorway to the bridge glimmered, a new universe opening up in front of him. Miranda laughed as Jonas ran around the console, a hologram of Gideon’s avatar hovering over it. His new life awaited.

“I’ll miss you, Gideon, truly. Selfishly, I hope you never forget me, your Captain. I love you, always have.” He brushed his lips against her cheek, feeling nothing but cold air. “Goodbye.”

He walked towards the portal when something grazed his arm.

“Rip?”

Rip turned, eyes widening when he saw Gideon looking at him, looking straight at him, her hand brushing against his arm, touching him. Her mouth parted, brow furrowed, eyes wide with hope and fear. His heart swooped, and the portal flickered. He found himself trapped on the brink of two worlds; his wife and son on one side, and Gideon on the other. For once, he had no clue which side to pick.

Closing his eyes, he made a decision, and took a step forward.

**Author's Note:**

> If you've read my Captain Jonas verse, this is the universe that Sara ends up in. She grows up happy, not to worry.


End file.
